Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has urged the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to achieve the tax collection target after missing the target for December 2022.
While heading a meeting with the FRB team, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar asked to achieve the tax collection goals from January 2023 onwards for the fiscal year 2022-23.
FBR Chairman Asim Ahmad presented FBR’s November and December 2022 revenue targets and results.
Chairman FBR informed the finance minister that FRB faces a revenue shortfall of Rs225 billion for December 2022; tax collecting machinery collected just Rs740 billion against a target of Rs965 billion.
The revenue shortfall will make it hard for the government to convince the IMF to revive the stalled IMF program without additional taxation measures, such as a mini-budget for the current fiscal year.
The government is considering a 1%-3% Flood Levy to raise Rs60 billion. Other direct taxation measures are possible. The government is in a catch-22 and has only identified areas with high profits because across-the-board taxation during stagflation could further erode economic activity.